Injury Forces Monson Out of Adrenaline

Jun 10, 2008 11:51 AM John Chandler

Jeff Monson. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Jeff Monson has reportedly been forced to pull out of his upcoming scheduled bout against PRIDE veteran Mike Russow at Adrenaline MMA’s inaugural show in Chicago this weekend.

Monson has yet to recover from a broken hand suffered during his recent loss to Josh Barnett at World Victory Road’s second “Sengoku” show last month and thus will be unable to compete in the show’s main event. He has been replaced by longtime veteran Jason Guida, a fellow Chicago native along with Russow.

Adrenaline promoter Monte Cox apparently attempted to sign Ricco Rodriguez as a late replacement but the former UFC champion is slated to take on none other than Monson at Global Fighting’s Godz of War show next weekend. Despite his lingering hand injury, Monson is still advertised as participating at the event.

“He [Monson] found that the thing wasn’t healing properly and he wasn’t going to be able to fight,” Cox said in the report. “It made sense for me at this point to go with two Chicago guys fighting each other, and they come from different camps in the same city and I just thought, you know what, this will probably sell me more tickets than anyone I can get on a week’s notice.”